Halle Berry chopped off hair to stand out at auditions

Actress Halle Berry originally cut her hair short in a bid to catch the attention of casting directors.

The Oscar winner felt sure she was missing out on movie roles at the beginning of her career because she didn’t stand out at auditions, and she was tired of blending in with other Hollywood hopefuls.

She tells People magazine, “I would go on acting auditions, and every black girl would have this long, curly hair, whether it was real or not. And I would go to these auditions and come back with nothing. So I had to somehow be
different.”

Berry recalls she chopped off her hair for the first time in 1989, infuriating her manager.

She adds, “I remember I went up to my manager’s office and his heart probably stopped beating. He said, ‘You’re never going to work, you’re not what they want!’ And I said, ‘Good. Let me be something different then.”

Two weeks later the beauty landed her first job as a model on the TV series “Living Dolls”: “I had short hair and that’s why they chose me – because I was different and not like everyone else. It was the way I kind of rebelled against… the notion that you have to have long hair to be beautiful.”

The “Catwoman” star ultimately grew her hair out, but she debuted her now-famous pixie three years ago and the actress insists she couldn’t be happier with her look, adding, “When I have my short, short hair, that’s when I’m my best self.”